Chapter 112 (1/2)

There wasn’t a single citizen of New Port City that didn’t know of Cordnell’s reputation. While they refrained from even looking at Isaac out of fear, Cordnell would stand his ground and fight back whenever things broke down.

It wasn’t surprising that Cordnell had such a reputation, considering that his screams echoed from the rooftop all too frequently. And it was this reputation that kept the city’s citizens silently in line.

The first wave of disqualifications occured before the training started, weeding out those who volunteered with skant optimism. Lanburton and Rizzly further pruned the ranks with brutal training that took no consideration for the loss of life. Still, 300 persistent souls managed to survive until the end.

“Who provides equipment for mercenaries in the first place? They should be glad they were even given any in the first place, even if it’s second hand.”

Cordnell grumbled. The main difference between a mercenary and a professional soldier was that a mercenary had to provide all of their own equipment themselves, while professionals were provided with equipment by the army.

There wasn’t a single case like Isaac’s. Who fed, sheltered, trained and even provided equipment for mercenaries without signing a contract with them? Isaac did, all because he wanted to start a mercenary business.

The volunteers took no risk of being tied down to the guild for the rest of their lives; they were free to leave for a better place after completing the training. That was part of why there were more volunteers than expected.

That was why Cordnell, who acquired enough equipment for a hundred men thinking it was enough, desperately scavenged for more equipment for the unexpected number of those who qualified. This delayed all of his other work, which was piling up into a mountain awaiting his return.

“True. I guess it doesn’t matter so long as they look the part.”

Isaac nodded nonchalantly. He looked down on the mercenaries in front of the City Hall’s plaza. The mercenaries formed a line as sharp as a sword’s edge; you couldn’t even hear them breathe. Isaac nodded with satisfaction.

“Hm. They don’t look half bad.”

“I’m not sure you’ll be happy with the result. There just wasn’t enough time.”

Lanburton looked down at the mercenaries unhappily. Lanburton’s stare alone made the mercenaries tense up – a testament to his harsh training.

“It doesn’t matter. We just need to look nice at the moment. You can train them as much as you want when they return.”

“Yes sir. I was quite disappointed with the short training period we had, since there were a number of fine candidates that made the training worth it.”

“Fine candidates? In this place?”

Isaac asked with great surprise, and Lanburton pointed at the mercenary band as he replied.

“Yes. Training may have been cut short, but these men pa.s.sed the Combat Agent Training Course with above-average evaluations.”

“Men? Not just one or two?”

Isaac’s eyes followed Lanburton’s finger and looked at them with keen focus and even greater surprise.

“They were capable and demonstrated great leaders.h.i.+p, so I made them the band’s officers. Most important is that they are very interesting.”

“How interesting?”

If Lanburton the elf said they were interesting, they must be extremely special. Lanburton grinned.

“They’re swearing loyalty to you, Sir Isaac.”

Isaac’s eyes gleamed.

“Swearing their loyalty to me… Now that really is interesting. But what’re their reasons?”

“That man at the head of the line – the temporary leader of the band – says he was about to starve to death with his sister in the streets when you were appointed. The others were in similar situations. They were, how to say, given a hand of salvation from Sir Isaac when they were just waiting to die. They say it’s an honour to repay their debts through this means.”

Isaac burst out in laughter.

“Salvation my a.s.s, those naive fools.”

From a man who’d just outgrown teens to a man at the doorstep for retirement, all of these men from all ages looked at Isaac with a burning pa.s.sion.

Isaac’s eyes met those of the man who was the band’s leader, positioned at the head of the line.

Coming face to face with this strange pa.s.sion, Isaac breathed out some smoke and asked Lanburton.

“What’s the name of the temporary leader?”

“He calls himself Flander.”

“Flander huh…”

Isaac muttered and met eye-to-eye with Flander again. There was a clear sense of fealty in those eyes, and Isaac tried his utmost to stop the sly grin from surfacing on his face.

‘They’ve finally come out.’

“There are so many special people in the world.”

“That’s what makes this world interesting.”

Lanburton added, and Isaac nodded.

“Deploy them. And when this job is over, throw them down into the mud so badly that those nutcases will never utter the bulls.h.i.+t that they swear loyalty to me.”

“Sorry? Isn’t it good to have loyal subordinates?”

Lanbortun tilted his head as Isaac walked away from the balcony of the roof. He buried himself into the sofa and answered.

“I prefer subordinates who hate me over those that are loyal. It’s very amusing to see their faces writhe in pain as they are forced to follow my orders, even as they dream of slitting my throat.”

Cordnell grumbled and jeered at Isaac.

“Sounds like you’re talking about me.”